weeyin

20 quid for a ticket to theTony Macaroni is pasta joke.

Sammon is nowhere near as bad as Bob Malcolm. (Bob Malcolm who, by the way, when we signed him, was touted by many experts on here as a classy, footballing midfielder. I kid you not). Johnson is the one we need to develop, though. Sammon was brought in as cover, then Bowman got injured and Main needs a cow's arse / banjo refresher.

Accies, Livingston, Dundee and probably St Mirren are all going to be in the bottom half mix. Our early fixtures could have been better, but I still think we'll do enough to keep relegation out of the picutre. I'm more concerned about entertainment value. No point in finishing 6th or 7th if we are unwatchable.

Far too soon to be thinking about relegation. With guys like Hartley, Aldred, Campbell etc. it's not leadership we are lacking. It's putting someone in midfield who can pass a ball. There's no point in sticking on players with 25 minutes to go and saying "2 goals down, save it for us". I was hoping Rodriguez might be that player, but he might not get that chance. Likewise, no point in playing Bigi, if the tactics are still to launch long balls over midfield and up the park.

The worst possible tactic to play against a deep lying defence is the long, high ball. You either need to play it wide and hit the bye-line, or find a through ball. Both of those tactics require someone in midfield capable of passing a ball on the deck - either out wide, or to find someone in the box. That will never happen while we're trying to earn the right to play football. Deep lying defences give the midfield time to create. You see good teams probing and playing short one-twos in and around the box. The opposition has invited you to play football - no earning required. We just aren't smart enough to do it.

ATS, Johnson, and Rodriguez all have the potential to be good signings. The new boy, Mbulu, could be a good one too (although not convinced we needed to re-sign Aldred at the same time given we had already picked up Donnelly). Whether you are a fan of Frear or not, there's no doubt he was one of the better performers in the League Cup group - and has been rewarded with zero starts in the league. Combine that with guys like Bigi, and Turnbull (and Dunne, Bowman and Tanner when they are fit again), and we have the potential to be more creative, play a bit more football. I'm not suggesting we suddenly turn into a silky smooth tiki-taka side, but there is plenty of room in the middle ground to be something other than a long ball team. It's all about balance. There was no point, for example, to bring in Sammon for high punts when it's obvious he scores 90% of his goals from passes on the deck. It's unclear whether Robinson just doesn't know what his best team is, or is scared to change his approach, but if you're the opposition, it's a lot easier to set up to defend long, high balls than it is to dfend against players taking you on, and good through balls. I knew we were in for a long afternoon against Accies after all the pre-match buildup on twitter etc. with the emphasis on "battles" and "fights" and "steel" etc. that plays right into their hands. Accies are poor this season, and the way to beat them is with a bit of football - just like the last game of last season. There will be games against Hearts, and Rangers etc. where we will need extra dig, but even then, we'll still need to create chances. I hope we take a step forward before the Livi game, because we struggled to adapt to the plastic pitch at Clyde in a game that was crying out for someone to put a foot on the ball and start playing some short, crisp passes. The Livi pitch is, by all accounts, worse than Clyde, and long balls don't work on plastic at the best of times - the ball just bounces too high and runs away from players. But I'm not panicking at this stage. I think it's going to be a rocky start, but I don't think relegation isn't in my thoughts yet.

The ball at Fir Park now gets more air time than the podcasters...

Except for the "winning a cup" bit.

Seems like Maguire will need Hartley, Aldred, Donnelly, Mbulu an McHugh to be unavailable before he gets another look in.

Aye, it was all Bigi's fault. Thankfully, everyone else was excellent and blameless in the defeat.

Turns out it's not about the battle, and the fight, and the "earning the right", and the steel, and the fire. It's still about creating chances and taking them. Who'd have thought it?

Didn't need to be Nostradamus to see that one coming.

Based on the Twitter commentary, it sounds like Main found an old pair of John Reilly's boots to wear.

"Earning the right to play football" is the technical term.

Moult relegated to the bench today. Breaks his first team starting streak of one.

Fingers crossed. We've been promised this is "in development" for 5 years or more, so hopefully it will finally arrive.

What's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

Passing the ball along the ground is not a skill reserved for highly paid footballers. Our U20s team has been trained to do exactly that.

You don't need to look further than Fir Park to see examples of teams that have played better football in recent times.

Miserable can be applied to the posters who constantly write "we're gonna get humped", "we always lose at Firhill", "come back to haunt us" week in and week out. I think there is a legitmate discussion taking place on the progress of the team, and the style we play. It may be speculation at this stage, but I'm not seeing misery.

Next TV appearance - Banged Up Abroad.

The constraints on our playing style are due to the type of player we recruit. I have no problem with the approach of signing younger players with a point to prove. There is no reason, however, one or two of them can't have a bit of football in their skill set. McGhee, McCall and Gannon managed to find one or two that could pass a ball. So it is possible. Like said in an earlier post, it's about balance. A ball winning midfielder can lay off a ball to a creative player just as easily as lumping one down the channels. And a striker can score from a precision pass just as easily as chasing down a long ball. There is a middle ground between Pep's Barca and Graham Taylor's Watford style of play.

Even if we ended up with only 2 centre backs we could easily switch to a back 4. Taylor-Sinclair as a left back, and Tait as right back. (I feel like I typed "back" a lot there).

Because we set up as normal against Hibs. Frear on the bench after being one of our best players in preseason, and brought on with bench-warmer Bigi to chase a lost cause. And watching us struggling against Clyde in the wind and on plastic because nobody was smart enough to put their foot on the ball and play short passes. And Hartley talking about having to battle against Accies. Exactly the same as last season. I'll be delighted if I'm wrong, but I don't see much likely to change in our style this season.

I suppose it depends if you want to be entertained for your £24 quid. There's a balance to be struck, but we're not there yet. There was plenty of football in the team that won the cup. Enough to beat Celtic at Parkhead in the league and take 4 off them in the semi at Hampden.